Who was your least favorite character in the new film? {repost of sinister71's poll}

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I know many people who just didn't feel right about one or more of the characters from the film but who was your least favorite{entmaiden note - for some reason, some folks were not able to vote in the previous poll, including me. So I reposted sinister71's poll and added None}

Dont get me wrong i thought azog was a bad character (though i dont feel that strongly about the CGI for him, i dont think it looked any worse than other CGI). The actual character himself i didnt like and how it changed the story and its tone so much.

As for Radagast, i just felt they reduced a character who could have been great into something pretty pathetic and just for laughs. The crossing of his eyes, the jokes of taking mushrooms, having a smoke on some weed, the stick insect, the poop down his face, bunny sled.

It didnt help that he appeared in one of the most pointless scenes - the warg chase and had the worst CGI of the film - warg and bunny sled race. Honestly looked worse than some CG on BBC which has about a $20 budget.

I didnt have massively high hopes for him due to what they made him look like but i didnt think they would go all out comic relief with him but keep him at least a little wizardy.

For this film i think they could have cut most of his scenes out. I think i might warm a tiny bit to him over the next two movies if the story pans out.

I loved Radagast, but the sled race definitely went on too long
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I completely disagree with just about everything you say about Radagast except for the sled race. I love Radagast (my favorite of the new characters) and I love the bunny sled, but the actual race went on way too long. It was great to start with, but they really just needed one shot of him outpacing the bad guys while the Company got away. It definitely went on too long.

I am so glad that PJ finally got a nature-themed character right after omitting Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, and Quickbeam from Lord of the Rings and delivering a disappointing Treebeard. Radagast was perfect for me.

i just felt they reduced a character who could have been great into something pretty pathetic and just for laughs. The crossing of his eyes, the jokes of taking mushrooms, having a smoke on some weed, the stick insect, the poop down his face, bunny sled.

Except the bunny sled, I actually enjoyed it for some reason

Anyway, I think the reason I ended up liking well enough was due to two things. One was the actually intelligent conversation he had with Gandalf by the trollshaws. They interacted like I thought they should have. Definitely added some brownie points for that. The other reason was that I had such low expectations, as I said before. It helped me to take what they gave me instead of being annoyed by everything.

Ok, I guess there's kind of a third reason he worked for me. I was able to completely separate him from my mental picture of Radagast. I have this mental image of book!Radagast who is very similar to Gandalf, only he's gone off to tend the flora and fauna. But he's still high and might like the wizards are supposed to be. Then there's movie!Radagast whom I almost think of as a completely different character because he's so radically different from my imagination. I don't know, I really helped me...

I felt the pacing of Radagast's introduction was a bit off. I felt like it was too big of a break from the main story and that the storyline of the Dwarves should be moving faster then. But I loved the Radagast scenes so much that I wanted them to keep going!

I thought the balance of humor vs. non-humor was good with Radagast. Perhaps just slightly too much on the humor side, but with enough other stuff to work. He was lovable. Of course, I also am a big animal lover and birder, so I appreciated all of that as well. I feel Radagast added some much needed whimsy to the movie. Just wish the battles and Dwarf history were a tad darker and bloodier to balance it, but I might feel differently on another viewing.

I still don't know how I feel about the stick insect part... I'll have to watch it again to figure it out. I appreciate the wackinss of it, but I'm not sure how funny I think it was.

"I have this mental image of book!Radagast who is very similar to Gandalf, only he's gone off to tend the flora and fauna. But he's still high and might like the wizards are supposed to be."That's how I saw movie Radagast, actually. Sure, he's eccentric and has some quirks, but he still felt like a high and mighty wizard to me. Although he had his quirks, he was still basically doing serious, wizardly things - protecting his forest and animals, investigating the new evil in Middle Earth, battling a Nazgul, alerting his fellow wizard and providing aid. All important things worthy of a high wizard, I think. I mean, Gandalf has his pipeweed and his fireworks and obsession with Hobbits, Saruman has his gunpowder, his orc breeding program, and his obession with machines, and Radagast has his mushrooms, his bunny sled, and his obession with animals. All the wizards have their quirks, but all are also deadly serious when they need to be. Radagast fits in quite well.

I myself hope I'll come to appreciate Azog and the other big changes from the book more with repeated viewings and the second movie.

I'll also note that I have becoming something of a birder in the last few years and am used to walking around environments with lots of bird pee. I even got peed on by a mockingbird once this fall, but I immediately returned home and washed it out of my hair. I thought it was funny more than disgusting, though.

I also have a high tolerance for whimsy. I didn't really mind Legolas's sheild surfing or Mumakil hijinks, either. I am a big fan of mixing the silly with the serious. Makes for a colorful world. If Radagast was used only as the butt of jokes and nothing more, my opinion would be different. But I felt they got the balance right.